China Remembers 'Last Emperor' With Death of Director Bertolucci

Bernardo Bertolucci in the Palace Museum, Beijing during the filming of "The Last Emperor" in 1987. Photo: VCG

Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci, who died in late November, produced dozens of films over a career that spanned five decades, including 1972’s controversial “Last Tango in Paris.” But in China he is best remembered for “The Last Emperor,” an Oscar-winning historical epic that broke ground as the first modern foreign film to “discover” a Chinese box office now challenging the U.S. as the world’s largest.